Orange

For a casual supper, broil rounds of prepared polenta roll, and toss romaine lettuce with oil and vinegar; end with cheesecake. For a special dinner, have broccoli spears with browned butter and orzo pilaf with Parmesan. Buy a hazelnut dacquoise or other fancy cake from the bakery for a great dessert.

Brunch drinks get updated with this take on the traditional duo of orange juice and champagne. Note that freshly squeezed orange juice is not the best choice here, as its intense taste can overwhelm the other juices. Topping the drink with a boysenberry "floater" creates a vibrant color contrast.

This delicious salad is from Johannes.

"To celebrate my recent promotion, my sister treated me to dinner at Radius here in Boston," says Jill Thompson, Boston, Massachusetts. The dessert we shared was unforgettable—a hazelnut meringue concoction made by pastry chef Paul Connors. As we polished it off, my sister and I agreed that we had found the city’s best new restaurant." Each component can be made ahead.

For a prettier salad, we used two varieties of radicchio — the common Verona, with red leaves and white ribs, and Treviso, which can range from pink to red and has narrower, pointed leaves.

A pretty pink dessert that is refreshing and light. Plums with dark purple skin or flesh will give the sherbet beautiful color. Serve a pot of green tea alongside.

A few tips: At several points in the recipe, components need to be chilled for a while before you can proceed, so plan accordingly. In our test kitchen, Philadelphia-brand cream cheese gave consistently good results. Note, too, that the cake can be completely assembled, then frozen for up to one week.

This recipe was created to accompany Traditional Hamantaschen or Cream Cheese Hamantaschen . Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe was created to accompany Cocoa Angel Food Cake with Orange Glaze

You can use the more traditional orange flower water or rose water instead of the orange peel and juice concentrate to flavor these crispy cookies.

Pastry chef Valerie Hill offers this appealing treat at the Morrison-Clark Historic Inn & Restaurant in Washington, D.C. Allowing the yogurt to drain produces the thick and creamy yogurt cheese.